Tidbits on September 12 2019
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Set 8 of the Historic Photographs of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Ron Resden
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/08ResdenSSH.htm

 

Tidbits on September 12, 2019
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Bob Jensen's Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

For earlier editions of Fraud Updates go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 
Bookmarks for the World's Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm 

My Latest Web Document
Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With Statistics --
-
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Updates from WebMD --- Click Here

Google Scholar --- https://scholar.google.com/

Wikipedia --- https://www.wikipedia.org/

Bob Jensen's search helpers --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Bob Jensen's World Library --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Animated  Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010)

USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history

Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE 




Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio

Serendipity, Tactility, and Community:  Library Research as  Practice of Wonder ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j7DMXEXHBo

The Rise and Fall of the Headphone Jack ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7davoSDgSHw

The Sunset Hill House Hotel (near our cottage) ---
https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cqUX0LcbU&t=9s


Free music downloads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm 

Watch an Archaeologist Play the “Lithophone,” a Prehistoric Instrument That Let Ancient Musicians Play Real Classic Rock ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/watch-an-archaeologist-play-the-lithophone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Irish Traditional Music --- https://jborden.com/2019/09/02/music-monday-the-irish-traditional-music-session/

Céline Dion is Everywhere ---
https://thewalrus.ca/celine-dion-is-everywhere/?cid=db&source=ams&sourceId=296279
For free listening search for her on YouTube --- https://www.youtube.com/

Bob Jensen's Links to Free Music
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Music.htm


Photographs and Art

The Scandalous Painting That Helped Create Modern Art: An Introduction to Édouard Manet’s Olympia ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/08/the-scandalous-painting-that-helped-create-modern-art.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

BBC Travel: National Parks --- www.bbc.com/travel/national-parks

Children & Nature Network --- www.childrenandnature.org

Parklandia ---  www.parklandiapodcast.com

The 10 best scenic train rides you can take in the US this fall ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/10-best-train-rides-can-take-in-us-this-fall-2019-9

Journey North --- https://journeynorth.org/

John Muir Laws: Nature Journaling Curriculum --- https://johnmuirlaws.com/journaling-curriculum/

Peaks and Valleys: A 3-D tour of our planet's highest and lowest spots ---
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/peaks-and-valleys/index.html

For less than $100, you can tour the abandoned towns around Chernobyl. Just watch out for radioactive trees and dogs, crumbling buildings, and the occasional selfie stick ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-exclusion-zone-tourism-photos-2019-8

Eerie photo captures the eye of Hurricane Dorian, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in history ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-dorian-video-eye-storm-heading-us-2019-9
Also see
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/3/20847314/hurricane-dorian-satellite-space-station-photos-iss?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_BshMDI9cMgxtFjOduakD2Mp0RLc05w3-7FDjJHTKmOSCGJ7d6XaMWuYLayzLZ_JIxOLUKmTUZmeViNrHtZnNkqnfPlg&_hsmi=76422523
Aftermath
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/9/4/20847941/hurricane-dorian-photos-bahamas-grand-bahama-abaco

Yale Presents an Archive of 170,000 Photographs Documenting the Great Depression ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/yale-presents-an-archive-of-170000-photographs-documenting-the-great-depression.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

Bob Jensen's threads on art history ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#ArtHistory

Bob Jensen's threads on history, literature and art ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#History


Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on libraries --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---Libraries

Wikisource Free Literature --- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Black Man's Lament by Amelia Opie --- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Black_Man%27s_Lament

Thoreau's Flute by Louisa May Alcott -- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Thoreau%27s_Flute

Precaution by James Fenimore Cooper --- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Precaution

Myths and Legends --- www.mythpodcast.com

Free Electronic Literature --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI




Now in Another Tidbits Document
Political Quotations on September 12, 2019
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2019/TidbitsQuotations091219.htm            

USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $19+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

Entitlements are two-thirds of the federal budget. Entitlement spending has grown 100-fold over the past 50 years. Half of all American households now rely on government handouts. When we hear statistics like that, most of us shake our heads and mutter some sort of expletive. That’s because nobody thinks they’re the problem. Nobody ever wants to think they’re the problem. But that’s not the truth. The truth is, as long as we continue to think of the rising entitlement culture in America as someone else’s problem, someone else’s fault, we’ll never truly understand it and we’ll have absolutely zero chance...
Steve Tobak ---
http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/02/07/truth-behind-our-entitlement-culture/?intcmp=sem_outloud

"These Slides Show Why We Have Such A Huge Budget Deficit And Why Taxes Need To Go Up," by Rob Wile, Business Insider, April 27, 2013 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/cbo-presentation-on-the-federal-budget-2013-4
This is a slide show based on a presentation by a Harvard Economics Professor.

Peter G. Peterson Website on Deficit/Debt Solutions ---
http://www.pgpf.org/

Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

Bob Jensen's health care messaging updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm




Coursera --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
The MOOCs are free, but Courseara gives examinations that allow for transcript credits and certificates for an added fee.

13 popular online courses (some with millions of students) that people enroll in and actually finish, according to Coursera ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/coursera-popular-courses-with-high-completion-rates

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are Free Online Courses from Prestigious Universities ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
Be prepared that learning from intense MOOCs entails time and intense work
These are not a casual walks in the park of knowledge (a friend says MOOCs are like drinking from a fire hose)

Thousands (3,700+) of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) Getting Started in September: Enroll Today ---
http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses

Discover Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from great universities. Most offer "certificates" or "statements of completion," though typically not university credit. A "$" indicates that the course is free, but the credential costs money. (See the key below to understand the credentials offered by each course, and see our MOOC FAQ if you have general questions.) Courses are arranged by start date, while evergreen courses, which can begin whenever you wish, are found at the bottom.

Free Courses Credential Key
CC = Certificate of Completion
CA = Certificate of Accomplishment
HCC - Honor Code Certificate
VC$ = Verified Certificate
VCA$ = Verified Certificate of Accomplishment
SA  = Statement of Accomplishment
SP$ = Statement of Participation
CM = Certificate of Mastery
NI - No Information About Certificate Available
NC = No Certificate

Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and other free online learning adventures from top universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Statement Against Student Evaluations for Promotion and Tenure Decisions (American Sociological Association) ---
https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/asa_statement_on_student_evaluations_of_teaching_sept52019.pdf

Jensen Comment
They fail to mention my main objection student evaluations --- the disgrace of grade inflation bringing the median grades up to A- across the USA ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

The Atlantic:  Has College Gotten Too Easy? Time spent studying is down, but GPAs are up ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/07/has-college-gotten-easier/594550/

Jensen Comment
In eight decades the median grade across the USA went from C+ to A- (with variations of course) and efforts in such places as Princeton and Cornell to limit the proportion of A grades were ended and deemed as failures.
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#RateMyProfessor

Now we ask:  Has college gotten to easy. I guess you know what I think.

Higher education has become Lake Wobegon where (almost) all students are above average in terms of what used to be average.


A study says smooth-talking professors can lull students into thinking they've learned more than they actually have -- potentially at the expense of active learning.---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/09/study-how-smooth-talking-professors-can-lull-students-thinking-theyve-learned-more?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=f6c035d588-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-f6c035d588-197565045&mc_cid=f6c035d588&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

Active Learning Works But Student’s Don’t Like It ---
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/03/1821936116

Bob Jensen's threads on tools that can improve both lecture and active learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm

Metacognitive Concerns in Designs and Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training:  
Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success
?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm#UpdateMessages


14 of the Weirdest Things You Can Buy on Amazon ---
https://www.reviewgeek.com/21980/14-things-you-didnt-know-they-sold-on-amazon/


Far too often, researchers’ scholarly and creative achievements simply become lines on curriculum vitae, argue Scott Slovic and Janet E. Nelson, who offer recommendations for validating faculty research ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2019/09/04/academic-administrators-must-do-more-highlight-researchers’-scholarly-and-creative?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=64813187b5-WNU_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-64813187b5-197565045&mc_cid=64813187b5&mc_eid=1e78f7c952


Just when we thought colleges could not spout loonier ideas, we have a new one from American University. They hired a professor to teach other professors to grade students based on their "labor" rather than their writing ability.
Academic Stupidity And Brainwashing
Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2019/09/11/academic-stupidity-and-brainwashing-n2552817?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/11/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935

The Biggest Scandal in Higher Education
On the other hand, that professor who challenges the student because he or she wants that student to be stronger than he or she now is sends a powerful message of respect to the student. (Why am I even writing such a comment? Isn't this obvious? Unfortunately, no. I write this because I have seen far too many people in charge of universities -- professors, people on staff, administrators -- who could not wrap their minds around this simple concept. Such a stance seemed "tough" to them, not "nice." Such a stance seemed "unfriendly," not "sweet and welcoming." Let's face it: such a stance is no come-on to the weakest prospective students who might well be lured to a university by every appeal that makes the place sound like a resort instead of a boot camp.) The professor who believes in challenging the student says this: you are not nothing, and, beyond that, you can achieve so much more than you already have. You may someday thank me for these challenges I present to you along with my willingness to work to help you succeed in your own right. I know from experience that some students will appreciate that work in the moment, some a decade or two later; some may never appreciate it. But a student's appreciation of the teacher has never been the real issue anyway, nor is it the mark of authentic teaching.
Doyle Wesley Walls, "How Will You Go to College?" The Irascible Professor, October 25, 2008 --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-10-25-08.htm
Bob Jensen's commentary on how teaching evaluations cause grade inflation (the biggest scandal in higher education) --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation

Message to America's Higher Education Faculty
You are the reason the colleges are proud of what they do and your accomplishments represent the performance that colleges and universities point to in developing and justifying their reputation. Reputations are not developed in a vacuum. You, your parents, your children, your colleagues and your peers are the living remnants of the college experience. Your success justifies the massive resources poured by private Americans into supporting colleges and universities. And your success validates the vocation that characterizes the role of so many faculty members. There is something special about American higher education, which continues to produce some of the world’s greatest scientists and engineers, thinkers and scholars. There is something unique in the education we offer, which provides a breadth, an intellectual depth to accompany the skills and aptitudes of the specialist. And there are the human successes in sectors whose mission is to produce an involved, thinking efficiency... Not everyone agrees that American higher education is characterized by success. Numbers are quoted indicating that the quality of graduates is not what it used to be. But they forget that sometimes the numbers go down as the numbers go up. As American higher education welcomes people less prepared, less gifted and often less motivated, as the atmosphere at some colleges becomes less rarified by the proliferation of remedial education, the average accomplishment will go down.
Bernard Fryshman, "Grasping the Reins of Reality," Inside Higher Ed, August 16, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/08/16/fryshman


The New Yorker:  What Statistics Can't Tell Us About Ourselves ---
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/09/what-statistics-can-and-cant-tell-us-about-ourselves
Thank you Denny Beresford for the heads up!

Over 400 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With Statistics --
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm

If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
Lincoln on How to Handle Criticism ---

https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/03/27/abraham-lincoln-criticism/?mc_cid=855d203b71&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Skepticism 101 --- http://www.skeptic.com/skepticism-101

**How to Mislead With Statistics (spurious correlations) ---
https://reason.com/archives/2015/12/04/did-california-prop-47-cause-state-crime

Unprofessional Journalism:  The Mueller Report ---
https://twitter.com/moorehn/status/1154558852043591681

How to Mislead With Statistics
Anaesthetist John Carlisle has spotted problems in hundreds of research papers — and spurred a leading medical journal to change its practice ---
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02241-z

Why History Gets Stuff Wrong All the Time ---
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2019/07/why-history-get-stuff-wrong-all-the-time/

Stanford University:  Civic Online Reasoning --- https://irlpodcast.org/


Climate Alarmists (think NASA) Caught Manipulating Temperature Data Yet Again ---
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/603035-climate-alarmists-caught-manipulating-temperature-data-yet-again-special?utm_source=c-pm&utm_medium=c-pm-email&utm_term=c-pm-GI


How Fact Checkers Mislead With Statistics
Ilhan Omar Defended by Media and Fact Checkers
---

https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2019/07/31/ilhan-omar-defended-by-media-and-fact-checkers-n2550908?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=07/31/2019&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167


How to Mislead With Statistics
 TripAdvisorHajj Ratings or Ummah.com
: Everything in Mecca gets 5 stars — and online reviews of other holy sites are wildly inflated, too ---
https://theconversation.com/everything-in-mecca-gets-5-stars-and-online-reviews-of-other-holy-sites-are-wildly-inflated-too-119614

Jensen Comment
In Lake Wobegon criticizing can get you killed.


How to Mislead With Statistics

Here are the best colleges in America according to U.S. News & World Report for 2019 ---
https://www.10news.com/news/national/here-are-the-best-colleges-in-america-according-to-u-s-news-world-report
Jensen Comment
What I have to say about best college rankings is ditto what I have to say below about hardest colleges to get into. In mathematics we say that those many-to-one transformations can be terribly misleading.

Hardest Colleges to Get Into in the USA
https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/09/06/hardest-colleges-to-get-into/?utm_source=247WallStDailyNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyNewsletter&utm_content=SEP102019a

Jensen Comment
I don't dispute the that the rankings are somewhat meaningful. What I dispute is the ignoring of some of the criteria used for admissions --- often unique combinations of criteria.

Admission to a prestigious university is a multivariate combination of factors, and it's misleading to rank universities on a superficial subset of the variables evaluated in the admissions process.

The first thing to do is to totally ignore the "acceptance ratio" criterion. It costs money to apply to these universities. And most students across the USA don't waste their time and money applying to colleges where they have little or no chance of gaining acceptance. Hence, the denominator of an "acceptance ratio" for Cal Tech or Harvard is misleading from get go due to self selection of what schools a student tries to get into. The denominator may have much more meaning for applicants to the Rank 50 university than to the Rank 1 university.

The second thing to do is to recognize that almost all (although not all) applicants to schools like Cal Tech and Harvard have very high SAT scores plus 4.0 grade averages from their high schools. Cal Tech and Harvard need some other criteria to pick the best from the best. And often those criteria are somewhat unique and can't be easily compared. Purportedly, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School's David Hogg was did not have a stellar SAT score, but he was admitted to Harvard for some other criteria not comparable with most other applicants ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hogg_(activist)
Many students are admitted to a prestigious university because of unique life experiences that are both interesting and unlike experiences of other applicants.

Those life experiences can't be quantifies in a ranking such as the one above.

What's interesting to me is the unique qualifications of students who are admitted to prestigious universities barely after reaching puberty (think 14 years old). What makes them so worthy of admission at such a young age.

A related question that I will probably never see answered is whether its more common to flunk out of Cal Tech than Harvard among students that are really trying to graduate and have no severe mental health issues. My priors are that Harvard can be pretty easy once you're admitted, although there are exceptions for certain disciplines that weaker students typically avoid.

One of my former girlfriends from decades ago was called to her chemistry professor's office. He promised to give her a C in introductory physical chemistry if she promised to change her major out of chemistry. She eventually graduated in nursing.


Science Alert, Some of The World's Most-Cited Scientists Have a Secret That's Just Been Exposed:---
https://www.sciencealert.com/some-of-the-world-s-most-cited-scientists-have-a-secret-that-s-just-been-exposed

Jensen Comment
Surely our accountics scientists are too honorable to play that game. But if accounting practitioners and business employees aren't reading those highly-cited academic accounting articles how why are their citations soaring?


WSJ:  Did the Obama administration commit the ‘biggest accounting fraud in history' with student loans? Experts weigh in ---
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-administration-student-loans-experts-113140861.html

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board (WSJ) recently suggested that the Obama administration pulled off “the biggest accounting fraud in history” with student loans when eliminating the role of private lenders in the federal student lending market.

Experts who spoke with Yahoo Finance acknowledged the issue with the general policy in hindsight, though they disagreed on who exactly is to blame.

In 2010, Democrats “nationalized the market to help pay for Obama Care,” WSJ asserted. “The Congressional Budget Office at the time forecast that eliminating private lenders would save taxpayers $58 billion over 10 years. This estimate was pure fantasy, and now we’re seeing how much.”

The WSJ op-ed also highlighted the rising number of severely delinquent student loans since then and blamed the Obama administration for expanding plans in 2012 for new borrowers “to reduce defaults, buy off millennial voters and disguise the cost of its student-loan takeover.”

The editorial board then added: “This may be the biggest accounting fraud in history.”

More

‘There’s no way around that’

WSJ argued that eliminating private lenders from the student loan market severely hurt Americans and that by using fair-market accounting, it becomes clear that student loans will actually cost taxpayers nearly $307 billion over the next 10 years.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) during the George W. Bush administration and currently president of the center-right American Action Forum, agreed that the accounting discrepancy manifested because of the “technique” used by the CBO to evaluate the cost of these loan programs.

“A widely known deficiency of the Federal Credit and Reform Act is that it does not allow the CBO to incorporate [market risk] into assessments," Holtz-Eakin told Yahoo Finance. “So the loans, when they're evaluated are evaluated as safer than they truly are, and thus, the losses are smaller than they may truly be. And there's no way around that — the techniques force you to do that.”

He added that “that's why when you when they switched from the private loans to the government loans, it appeared to save money... that is misleading. I don't disagree, but it's not the CBO's fault — those are the rules.”

Sheila Bair, the chair of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2006 to 2011, agreed that the WSJ was “right to call out the government” on the accounting issue and stressed that it is “a huge problem with federal budgeting and transparency generally.”

Income-based repayment plans were ‘poorly designed’

The WSJ argued that the key catalyst for the student debt crisis today — $1.48 trillion student loans outstanding, with 35% of the consumer loans in the “severely derogatory” category — was a result of the Obama administration’s policies regarding income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

IDR plans allow borrowers to cap monthly student loan payments based on how much money they are making at a given time. As of September 2018, “almost half of the $898 billion in outstanding federal Direct Loans [were] being repaid by borrowers using IDR plans,” according to the Government Accountability Office.

Continued in article


Soaring Student Debt Opens Door to Relief Scams ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/soaring-student-debt-opens-door-to-relief-scams-11566826805


Alexa --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa

MIT:  Alexa will be your best friend when you’re older or otherwise become more disabled ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614044/alexa-will-be-your-best-friend-when-youre-older/?utm_campaign=the_algorithm.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=76535820&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9jdiBfw6cE9Gji0Y1qjIJh-kctUFg2S1luSXz0BJh1Ye6LBNWPQn3uH0ALXP19eujwV1fzNdybcifQBSx8pWfooqVLmw&_hsmi=76535820

Bob Jensen's threads on technology aids for disabled and learning-challenged people ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Handicapped


Getting on the Plastic Highway
Why Plastic Roads Lead to a Cleaner Ocean ---
https://daily.jstor.org/why-plastic-roads-lead-to-a-cleaner-ocean/


Getting on the Hydrogen Highway
Bloomberg, August 30, 2019 pp 11-12
https://www.scribd.com/article/423708967/Getting-On-The-Hydrogen-Highway

. . .

For now, though, the dirtier forms (fossil-fuel-powered) hydrogen production remain less than half as expensive as renewable (solar- and wind-powered) ones. That's a headache for Norway's government, which plans to halt sales of fossil-fuel-powered cars by 2025 and expects to have 500,000 hydrogen cars on the road in the country a few years later. At the very least, that would mean a lot more electrolyzers in places like Berlevag.

Jensen Comment
Norway is a small nation with 5+ million people and a Wealth Fund of over $1 trillion saved from oil and gas production profits. It can afford to generate expensive hydrogen to for 500,000 cars. The USA is a large nation with 350+ million residents and over $22 trillion in booked debt. The USA cannot possibly afford to produce enough expensive hydrogen cars to replace 270 million cars within 10 years unless there are tremendous breakthroughs allowing for the production of much cheaper hydrogen. However, over a longer horizon plentiful hydrogen is a much better looking solution than relatively scarce lithium that is highly polluting to produce for car batteries. The future of hydrogen fuel cell energy looks much brighter than other forms of renewable energy at the moment, although there are many developments taking place in nuclear, solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources. Nations like Norway, China, Japan, and Germany are betting on hydrogen --- most likely in fuel cells.

Preview: The hydrogen economy in China ---
https://www.gasworld.com/preview-the-hydrogen-economy-in-china/2017616.article

Germany Turns to Hydrogen in Quest for Clean Energy Economy --- 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-02/germany-turns-to-hydrogen-in-quest-for-clean-energy-economy 

How to Mislead With Mathematics

Marty Weitzman’s Noah’s Ark Problem ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/08/marty-weitzmans-noahs-ark-problem.html

Jensen Comment
The article raises its own concern about the analytics.

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics --- 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So 
You must watch this to the ending to appreciate it.

Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics

Can the 2008 investment banking failure be traced to a math error?
Recipe for Disaster:  The Formula That Killed Wall Street --- http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all 
Link forwarded by Jim Mahar --- 
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/recipe-for-disaster-formula-that-killed.html 

Some highlights:

"For five years, Li's formula, known as a Gaussian copula function, looked like an unambiguously positive breakthrough, a piece of financial technology that allowed hugely complex risks to be modeled with more ease and accuracy than ever before. With his brilliant spark of mathematical legerdemain, Li made it possible for traders to sell vast quantities of new securities, expanding financial markets to unimaginable levels.

His method was adopted by everybody from bond investors and Wall Street banks to ratings agencies and regulators. And it became so deeply entrenched—and was making people so much money—that warnings about its limitations were largely ignored.

Then the model fell apart." The article goes on to show that correlations are at the heart of the problem.

"The reason that ratings agencies and investors felt so safe with the triple-A tranches was that they believed there was no way hundreds of homeowners would all default on their loans at the same time. One person might lose his job, another might fall ill. But those are individual calamities that don't affect the mortgage pool much as a whole: Everybody else is still making their payments on time.

But not all calamities are individual, and tranching still hadn't solved all the problems of mortgage-pool risk. Some things, like falling house prices, affect a large number of people at once. If home values in your neighborhood decline and you lose some of your equity, there's a good chance your neighbors will lose theirs as well. If, as a result, you default on your mortgage, there's a higher probability they will default, too. That's called correlation—the degree to which one variable moves in line with another—and measuring it is an important part of determining how risky mortgage bonds are."

I would highly recommend reading the entire thing that gets much more involved with the actual formula etc.

The “math error” might truly be have been an error or it might have simply been a gamble with what was perceived as miniscule odds of total market failure. Something similar happened in the case of the trillion-dollar disastrous 1993 collapse of Long Term Capital Management formed by Nobel Prize winning economists and their doctoral students who took similar gambles that ignored the “miniscule odds” of world market collapse -- - 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#LTCM  


“In China, bad research can be worth gold.” Neue Zürcher Zeitung explored misconduct in China ---
https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/chinesische-forschung-wieso-so-oft-gefaelscht-wird-ld.1484509
Jensen Comment
I could not read this article, but I think the conclusion is not good for China after Zürcher scoured the Retraction Watch database of published paper retractions


In general I don't like "best" lists on most any topic because there are so many criteria for defining best. Unless the criterion or short list of criteria the list of "best" things may be more misleading than helpful.

Required reading: These are the books top professors at the best business schools in the country are having their MBA students read ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/books-mba-professors-business-school-harvard-stanford-kellogg-recommend

Jensen Comment
No accounting books are mentioned in the above article even though accounting is part and parcel to literally every MBA program in the world.  This begs the question of what accounting book would be your first choice to add to the list of above books. What about naming one in financial accounting and another in managerial accounting?
Here's one list ---
https://www.blog.consultants500.com/accounting-audit-advisory/top-15-accounting-books-recommended-most-times-by-business-owners-students-or-accounting-pros/
This points out a typical problem when recommending "best books." The problem is that there are so many subtopics like accounting theory, elementary accounting, accounting history, employee fraud, financial statement fraud, managerial decisions, investment decisions, small business accounting, etc. Another problem is that accounting interacts with so many other disciplines, especially economics and finance. Here's a list that shows some of this interaction
https://www.wikiaccounting.com/10-best-accounting-books-recommended-by-readers/

The above article's list of "Required Reading" is weak on taxation even though taxation does appear in some of the recommended books. If you had to recommend a taxation book what book would you recommend?

The above article's list of "Required Reading is weak on accounting information systems, artificial intelligence, and internal controls.  If you had to recommend an AIS book what book would you recommend?


We asked teachers for the one thing students do that drives them nuts — and these are the 6 answers that kept coming up ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/teachers-reveal-infuriating-student-habits-lying-phones

Jensen Comment
Although partly and vaguely under the reply about "lying," I think plagiarizing and otherwise cheating has to be the biggest thing that drives most teachers nuts.


On the other side of the coin there are things teachers do that annoy students.

Here's one list ---
http://www.profkrg.com/10-things-professors-do-that-annoy-students
Unless its part of the intended pedagogy of making students learn on their own being unprepared for class was one of the things that annoyed me most with some of my professors. But it gives top students a chance to shine when they help a teacher out in class. Yean I remember when this happened on occasion, especially in math classes.

It takes some effort, but you can learn a lot about what irks students by sorting through student replies on RateMyProfessors.com ---
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/
You can search for targeted professors or you can randomly search for the lowest rated professors and find out why they are rated low. Most commonly its unfair grading, tough grading, playing favorites, or opinions that going to class is a waste of time. There are some other eye-opining reasons given. Sometimes highly-rated teachers do some things that annoy students. Read the 99 ratings of Robert Jensen at the University of Texas.


Soaring Student Debt Opens Door to Relief Scams ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/soaring-student-debt-opens-door-to-relief-scams-11566826805


Most academics have lots of rejection stories. Far fewer have rejection stories like Alison Gerber’s ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/26/sociologist-says-journal-rejected-her-paper-because-shes-shared-it-elsewhere

Jensen Comment
When an article of interest is available on outlets that distribute working papers such as SSRN it's best to download it before it becomes unavailable after it gets published --- of course there may be some important revisions in the published versions


How banks are striking back against Quicken Loans and other digital-first lenders in the $9 trillion US mortgage market ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-online-mortgage-lending-report-2019-7


Here are the highest-paid players at each position in the NFL---
https://www.businessinsider.com/highest-paid-nfl-players-at-each-position-2019-8

Jensen Comment
Not a Nobel Prize winner in the lot.


Apple launched a public beta of its music-streaming service on the web on Thursday.
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-music-is-now-available-on-the-web-2019-9
The interface will allow subscribers to stream music directly from a browser without having to install iTunes or the Apple Music app.


When Parents Unethically Help Their Children ---
https://retractionwatch.com/2019/09/09/unjustified-authorship-spikes-paper-by-daughter-of-south-korea-official/

When Spouses Unethically Help Each Other ---
Linebacker's Wife Says She Wrote His Papers (and took two online courses for him)
The wife of a star University of South Florida linebacker says she wrote his academic papers and took two online classes for him. The accusations against Ben Moffitt, who had been promoted by the university to the news media as a family man, were made in e-mail messages to The Tampa Tribune, and followed Mr. Moffitt’s filing for divorce. Mr. Moffitt called the accusations “hearsay,” and a university spokesman said the matter was a “domestic issue.” If it is found that Mr. Moffitt committed academic fraud, the newspaper reported, the university could be subject to an NCAA investigation.
"Linebacker's Wife Says She Wrote His Papers," Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, January 5, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/news/article/3707/linebackers-wife-says-she-wrote-his-papers?at

Bob Jensen's threads on plagiarism and cheating ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm


Apple reportedly disabled the stolen iPhones, which likely makes them worthless to the thieves and anyone who buys them ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-products-stolen-australia-apple-store-bricked-2019-9

Jensen Comment
It's a little like an exploding dye pack in a bag full of bank loot.


Do the Rich Get Richer in the Stock Market? Evidence from India ---
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/campbell/files/dotherichgetricher_31july2018_01.pdf

We have studied wealth held in equity accounts in India, a large developing country that is important for the evolution of global wealth inequality. We have shown that heterogeneous risky log investment returns have important e⁄ects on the cross-sectional distribution of account size: large accounts result not only from large contributions, but also from high log returns. The e⁄ect of log return heterogeneity accounts for 84% of the increase in the cross-sectional variance of log account size during our sample period from March 2002 to May 2011. Return heterogeneity increases the inequality of account size through two main channels, both of which are related to the prevalence of undiversied accounts that own relatively few stocks. The rst is that some undiversied portfolios randomly do well, while others do poorly. The second is that larger accounts tend to earn higher average log returns. They do so not by earning higher average simple returns, but by limiting uncompensated idiosyncratic risk which lowers the average log return for any given average simple return.

Our paper partially supports Pikettys (2014) concern that the rich get richer by earning high investment returnssubject to the distinction, central in nance theory, between simple and log returns. Our results also highlight the importance for developing countries of investment vehicles, such as mutual funds and exchange traded funds, that are already common in developed countries and that give small investors an a⁄ordable way to diversify r

Jensen Comment
I might speculate that India has less effective regulation for enforcing stock market efficiencies ---

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis


Ten fast-food chains with the most locations in America ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/10-fast-food-chains-with-the-most-locations-in-america-2019-6
There are more Subway locations in America than McDonald's and Burger Kings combined.

01 Subway
02 Starbucks
03 McDonalds
04 Dunlin'
05 7-Eleven
06 Pizza Hut
07 Burger King
08 Taco Bell
09 Domino's
10 Circle K

Beyond Meat gets slapped with a rare 'sell' rating after a Wall Street firm says it's not worthy of its 'tech valuation' ---
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/beyond-meat-stock-price-dips-second-wall-street-sell-rating-2019-9-1028505770

Jensen Comment
I brought two Impossible Whoppers home for the first time. Erika took two bites, made a face, and gave the rest of her IW to me.  I like the IW as much as I like Burger King;s Beef Whopper, although both are tasteless without mustard. Neither compares with the hamburgers available daily in our local hospital. The worst fast food items in the world are Burger King's new tacos (that are deep fat fried yuk).

KFC is by far the most popular fast food chain in China and it's nothing like the US brand — here's what it's like
https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-fast-food-chain-in-china-kfc-photos-2018-4


Why Jim Borden Loves Linked In ---
https://jborden.com/2019/09/05/why-i-love-linkedin/


Black College Enrollment Is Down 13% Since 2010 ---
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2019/09/black-college-enrollment-is-down-13-since-2010.html
The largest drop took place before Trump became President. African-American enrollments in public universities grew at the same time, but at a slightly lower poace than the drop in black college enrollments.


The Eyes Have It:  How googly eyes solved one of today’s trickiest UX problems (for robots at least) ---
https://www.fastcompany.com/90395110/how-googly-eyes-solved-one-of-todays-trickiest-ux-problems


New Jersey’s Dream Mall Turns Into a Nightmare ----
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-03/n-j-s-dream-mall-40-million-people-and-a-traffic-nightmare?cmpid=BBD090319_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=190903&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

Jensen Comment
Planners left out a crucial detail --- how to get there!

Sort of reminds me of decades ago when the University of Michigan built an enormous stadium without nearly enough bathrooms. Some fans discovered the misery of wet diapers in freezing weather.


From David Giles on September 1, 2019

Back to School Reading in Econometrics ---
https://davegiles.blogspot.com/2019/09/back-to-school-reading.html

Here we are - it's Labo(u)r Day weekend already in North America, and we all know what that means! It's back to school time.

You'll need a reading list, so here are some suggestions:

·                     Frances, Ph. H. B. F., 2019. Professional forecasters and January. Econometric Institute Research Papers EI2019-25, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

·                     Harvey, A. & R. Ito, 2019. Modeling time series when some observations are zero. Journal of Econometrics, in press.

·                     Leamer, E. E., 1978. Specification Searches: Ad Hoc Inference With Nonexperimental Data. Wiley, New York. (This is a legitimate free download.)

·                     MacKinnon, J. G., 2019. How cluster-robust inference is changing applied econometrics. Working Paper 1413, Economics Department, Queen's University.

·                     Steel, M. F. J., 2019. Model averaging and its use in economics. Mimeo., Department of Statistics, University of Warwick.

·                     Stigler, S. M., 1981. Gauss and the invention of least squares. Annals of Statistics, 9, 465-474. 


The Guardian:  Facebook has launched its new dating service in the US. Sounds safe, right?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/05/facebook-launches-dating-app-is-it-safe-privacy-issues?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=76525038&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9wgCHrc2MrsMT8QITQqD6Q7_7O6rZ8OuE_oKqJcWPaUeyGuxfALQXbuu5GW1rDPWo6-c5cDrlPXf1bdZ8tjbj5Y3Yfsw&_hsmi=76525038


Avoiding Scam Artists at Home and Abroad ---
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/avoiding-scam-artists-at-home-and-abroad

Don’t Fall for the Suspended Social Security Number Scam ---
https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/social-security/articles/dont-fall-for-the-suspended-social-security-number-scam

Current and past editions of my blog called Fraud Updates --- 
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm


CityLab: The Commuting Principle that Shaped Urban History ---
www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/commute-time-city-size-transportation-urban-planning-history/597055

Bob Jensen's threads on transportation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Transportation


Blockchain --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Learning From Silicon Valley About Blockchain Adoption ---
https://readwrite.com/2019/09/06/learning-from-silicon-valley-about-blockchain-adoption/


Are self-service libraries a threat to the profession or an opportunity to better serve patrons? ---
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/09/03/automatic-people-self-service-libraries/


Steps toward closing the gender pay gap ---
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2019/sep/gender-pay-gap-cpa-firms.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=09Sep2019


When Corporations Changed Their Social Role—and Upended Our Politics
By Nicholas Lemann
The Wall Street Journal
September 6, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-corporations-changed-their-social-roleand-upended-our-politics-11567782178?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

Presidential elections in the U.S. are traditionally about economics. Next year’s vote, and others around the world, have the feeling, however, of being not just about how the economy is performing in the moment but about something more fundamental: the economic system. What drove the rise of Donald Trump and politicians like him elsewhere was the promise that a new government with new policies could restore a fondly remembered (by some) economic and social order from the past. Those politicians’ opponents on the left have a similar interest, though with completely different specifics, in remaking the political economy. It seems like centuries ago, though it was actually only four or five election cycles, when immediate economic conditions were a political issue but not the basic design of the economy.

What brought about this dramatic shift? To understand that, it’s necessary first to recall what the American economic order used to be and what made it come apart.

A good place to begin is at Bennington College in Vermont during the worst years of World War II. Two émigré Viennese intellectuals, Peter Drucker and Karl Polanyi, had holed up there to teach. Drucker, who went on to become probably the world’s most famous management consultant, was then in his early 30s, orderly and ambitious; Polanyi, more than a decade older, was messy and voluble and considerably to the left of Drucker politically. Each of them was working on a book proposing a large social vision for the second half of the 20th century.

Through the long Vermont winters, Drucker and Polanyi would trudge between each other’s houses in the snow so they could argue about their books. Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation” treated the rise of unimpeded modern capitalism as a vast, long-running social disaster. “At the heart of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century,” he wrote, “there was an almost miraculous improvement in the tools of production, which was accompanied by a catastrophic dislocation of the lives of the common people.” The only possible lasting solution to the problem of capitalism, he believed, was for government to make itself such a forceful presence that the economy would be made the servant of society instead of society being the servant of the economy.

Drucker’s book was called “The Future of Industrial Man: A Conservative Approach.” The subtitle was apt. He saw the end product of the Industrial Revolution as the modern corporation, which was an institution he very much admired. Drucker thought government control of the economy would lead to “centralized bureaucratic despotism.” Instead, the corporation, on its own rather than under the government’s direction, must invent something heretofore unknown: “a functioning industrial society.”

Not long after “The Future of Industrial Man” was published, Drucker was surprised to get a call from an executive at General Motors —at that point, the ne plus ultra of corporations. How would he like to come to Detroit for a couple of years and find out how GM actually worked? Drucker eagerly accepted the offer, and in 1946 he published a book about what he had found, called “Concept of the Corporation.” There he reprised his theory in much more florid terms. “The large industrial unit has become our representative social actuality,” he declared, “and its social organization, the large corporation in this country, is our representative social institution.”

During his research, Drucker became friendly with GM’s president, Charles E. Wilson. (He’s the man remembered for saying, “For years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.”) The two of them, according to Drucker, had conversations about GM’s social role that helped nudge Wilson toward negotiating, in 1950, the Treaty of Detroit, a five-year contract with the United Auto Workers that established annual raises, company-provided health insurance and pensions, and a measure of job security for workers as norms of American corporate life.

It was during this period that President Harry Truman was failing to achieve most of his Fair Deal, a proposed ramping up of the welfare state that included a prototype version of what liberal politicians would now call “Medicare for all.” That failure left government playing a role inconsistent with Karl Polanyi’s ideas and the corporation playing a role consistent with Drucker’s. Corporate employment was an American exceptionalist version of the welfare state.

It is stating the obvious to point out that this system no longer exists. One often hears calls for big corporations to be socially responsible—last month, the Business Roundtable added its voice in a statement signed by 181 corporate chief executives—but not for them to serve collectively as the major American social (rather than economic) institution. For a quarter-century or so during the mid-20th century, however, this was lived reality for millions of Americans who dutifully served the corporations where they worked until they retired at 65 on generous defined-benefit pensions, suppressing whatever independent or entrepreneurial impulses they may have had in exchange for the company’s loyalty to them. And a coterie of establishment-oriented liberal intellectuals trumpeted the arrangement as a not-half-bad social and political order, since a Western European welfare state seemed unachievable in the U.S.

So what happened? Besides being vulnerable because it was a product more of custom than of law, the corporation-based welfare state, in retrospect, had two major weaknesses. It mainly excluded large groups with rising aspirations, like racial and ethnic minorities and women, so they felt little stake in preserving the system. Even more consequentially, it depended on the corporation’s economic invulnerability and the quiescence of its shareholders.

Continued in article

 


From a Chronicle of Higher Education Newsletter on September 7, 2019
Arizona State University Becomes a Role Model on How to Ignore Sustainability Goals

Arizona State walked away from most of its sustainability goals.

Eight years ago, Arizona State University made big plans to go green. Today, those plans have largely been abandoned. How did that happen? Mick Dalrymple, director of the university’s sustainability practices, told The State Press that the goals outlined in the 2011 plan were not realistic. The plan described 266 steps the university needed to take to meet those goals, but the newspaper’s investigation found that Arizona State had taken only a few of them. The story is a compelling investigation of how a university can fail to meet its goals in spite of a detailed plan. \




Free Online Tutorials, Videos, Course Materials, and Learning Centers


Education Tutorials

Bringing Back the Condors --- http://condorkids.net

BBC Travel: National Parks --- www.bbc.com/travel/national-parks

Children & Nature Network --- www.childrenandnature.org

Parklandia ---  www.parklandiapodcast.com

Journey North --- https://journeynorth.org/

John Muir Laws: Nature Journaling Curriculum --- https://johnmuirlaws.com/journaling-curriculum/

Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch

Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Engineering, Science, and Medicine Tutorials

Book Recommendation
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality ---
https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Einstein-Debate-Nature-Reality/dp/0393339882/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TZCS3JC15UET&keywords=manjit+kumar+quantum&qid=1567465195&s=books&sprefix=manjit+kumar+qua%2Cstripbooks%2C128&sr=1-1/marginalrevol-20

Bringing Back the Condors --- http://condorkids.net/

Bob Jensen's threads on free online science, engineering, and medicine tutorials are at --http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Social Science and Economics Tutorials

CityLab: The Commuting Principle that Shaped Urban History ---
www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/commute-time-city-size-transportation-urban-planning-history/597055

Does Your Dog Really Love You and What Does That Really Mean? A Journey in Cognitive Science and Moral Philosophy ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/09/06/alexandra-horowitz-our-dogs-ourselves/?mc_cid=16d4523a81&mc_eid=4d2bd13843

Bob Jensen's threads on Economics, Anthropology, Social Sciences, and Philosophy tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Law and Legal Studies

Bob Jensen's threads on law and legal studies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Law


Math Tutorials

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Mathematics and Statistics

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


History Tutorials

The Rise and Fall of the Headphone Jack ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7davoSDgSHw

How Egyptians Built Pyramids ---
https://analog-antiquarian.net/2019/08/30/chapter-16-how-to-build-a-pyramid/

Myths and Legends --- www.mythpodcast.com

Bob Jensen's threads on history tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to History
Also see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm  

Bob Jensen's links to free courses and tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI


Language Tutorials

Bob Jensen's links to language tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Languages


Music Tutorials

Watch an Archaeologist Play the “Lithophone,” a Prehistoric Instrument That Let Ancient Musicians Play Real Classic Rock ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/09/watch-an-archaeologist-play-the-lithophone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29

TeachRock: The Music that Shaped America ---
https://teachrock.org/the-music-that-shaped-america/

Bob Jensen's threads on free music tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Scroll down to Music

Bob Jensen's threads on music performances ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm


Writing Tutorials

Bob Jensen's helpers for writers are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries



Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine

CDC Blogs --- http://blogs.cdc.gov/

Shots: NPR Health News --- http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots

Updates from WebMD --- http://www.webmd.com/

August 31, 2019

·         Mumps Outbreaks Hitting Migrant Detention Centers

·         Transgender People Pressured on ‘Conversion Therapy’

·         CDC Says 'Don't Vape' As Lung Injury Cases Rise

·         Staying Safe Before and After a Hurricane

·         Even Age 80 Is Not Too Late to Begin Exercising

·         Alex Trebek Back On 'Jeopardy!' After Chemotherapy

·         Posting All Those Selfies Online Could Backfire, Study Finds

·         There Is No 'Gay Gene,' Major Study Concludes

·         FDA Warns of Problems for Some Taking Hep C Drugs

September 2, 2019

·         Transgender People Pressured on ‘Conversion Therapy’

·         Mumps Outbreaks Hitting Migrant Detention Centers

·         CDC Says 'Don't Vape' As Lung Injury Cases Rise

·         Staying Safe Before and After a Hurricane

·         Even Age 80 Is Not Too Late to Begin Exercising

·         Alex Trebek Back On 'Jeopardy!' After Chemotherapy

·         Posting All Those Selfies Online Could Backfire, Study Finds

·         There Is No 'Gay Gene,' Major Study Concludes

·         FDA Warns of Problems for Some Taking Hep C Drugs

 September 3, 2019

·         Mumps Outbreaks Hitting Migrant Detention Centers

·         CDC Says 'Don't Vape' As Lung Injury Cases Rise

·         Staying Safe Before and After a Hurricane

·         Even Age 80 Is Not Too Late to Begin Exercising

·         Alex Trebek Back On 'Jeopardy!' After Chemotherapy

·         Posting All Those Selfies Online Could Backfire, Study Finds

·         There Is No 'Gay Gene,' Major Study Concludes

·         FDA Warns of Problems for Some Taking Hep C Drugs

September 4, 2019

·         Teen's Fussy 'Junk Food' Diet Leaves Him Blind

·         Once Again Soda Tied to Higher Risk of Early Death

·         'Rhoda' Star Valerie Harper Dies

·         Cancer Tops Heart Disease as Killer of Middle-Aged

·         Weight-Loss Surgery Drops Heart Disease, Death Risk for Diabetics

·         Could Red Wine Boost Your 'Microbiome'?

·         Mumps Outbreaks Hitting Migrant Detention Centers

·         Transgender People Pressured on ‘Conversion Therapy’

·         CDC Says 'Don't Vape' As Lung Injury Cases Rise

September 5, 2019

·            Pubic Grooming Doesn't Raise STD Risk

·         Ongoing Coverage: Ethylene Oxide Emissions

·         Second U.S. Death in Spate of Vaping Illnesses

·         NYC Measles Outbreak Over: Officials

·         Statins May Lower Death Risk From Artery Disease

·         Airlines Seek to Serve Hearing-Impaired Passengers

·         Teen's Fussy 'Junk Food' Diet Leaves Him Blind

·         Once Again Soda Tied to Higher Risk of Early Death

·         'Rhoda' Star Valerie Harper Dies

September 5, 2019

·         Are Vaping Ailments Linked to Bootleg Cartridges?

·         Over 1,000 Cases of Salmonella from Live Poultry

·         Coming Soon: A 'Pot Breathalyzer'?

·         Pubic Grooming Doesn't Raise STD Risk

·         Second U.S. Death in Spate of Vaping Illnesses

·         Ongoing Coverage: Ethylene Oxide Emissions

·         NYC Measles Outbreak Over: Officials

·         Statins May Lower Death Risk From Artery Disease

September 7, 2019

·         Suicide Becoming All Too Common in U.S.

·         Diabetes Control Has Stalled Across U.S.

·         Death Toll Rises as Vaping Cases Skyrocket

·         Men’s Eating Disorders Often Not Recognized

·         Avoid All Pig-Ear Dog Treats: U.S. Officials

·         Marijuana Use Among College Students Rising Fast

·         Scientists ID Genes Tied to Left-Handedness

·         Vegetarians May Face Higher Stroke Risk

·         Getting Married Might Lower Your Odds for Dementia

September 9, 2019

·             Suicide Becoming All Too Common in U.S.

·         Diabetes Control Has Stalled Across U.S.

·         Death Toll Rises as Vaping Cases Skyrocket

·         Men’s Eating Disorders Often Not Recognized

·         Avoid All Pig-Ear Dog Treats: U.S. Officials

·         Marijuana Use Among College Students Rising Fast

·         Scientists ID Genes Tied to Left-Handedness

·         Vegetarians May Face Higher Stroke Risk

·         Getting Married Might Lower Your Odds for Dementia

September 10, 2019

·         HRT Could Benefit Younger Women After Hysterectomy

·         Don't Blame Tech for Young People's Mood Problems

·         Occasional Naps Do a Heart Good, Swiss Study Finds

·         California Fights Fake Vaccine Medical Exemptions

·         HPV 'Herd Immunity' Is on the Rise Among Adults

·         Doctors Warn of Consequences as Measles Cases Rise

·         FDA Warns Juul About Illegal Marketing Claims

·         Prosthetic Leg Senses Touch, Reduces Phantom Pain

·         Kroger Yellowfin Tuna Steaks Linked to Poisoning

September 11, 2019

·         HRT Could Benefit Younger Women After Hysterectomy

·         Don't Blame Tech for Young People's Mood Problems

·         Occasional Naps Do a Heart Good, Swiss Study Finds

·         California Fights Fake Vaccine Medical Exemptions

·         HPV 'Herd Immunity' Is on the Rise Among Adults

·         Doctors Warn of Consequences as Measles Cases Rise

·         FDA Warns Juul About Illegal Marketing Claims

·         Prosthetic Leg Senses Touch, Reduces Phantom Pain

·         Kroger Yellowfin Tuna Steaks Linked to Poisoning

 


David Byrne Launches Reasons to Be Cheerful, an Online Magazine Featuring Articles by Byrne, Brian Eno & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2019/08/david-byrne-launches-reasons-to-be-cheerful-an-online-magazine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29


Humor for September 2019

There’s a joke going around: “My wife asked me why I was speaking so softly at home. I told her I was afraid Mark Zuckerberg1 was listening. She laughed. I laughed. Alexa laughed. Siri laughed.”
Eric Cohen

The funniest coach in college football ---
https://twitter.com/NickPetraccione/status/1170204223197388802




Humor August 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0819.htm

Humor July 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q3.htm#Humor0719.htm

Humor June 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0619.htm

Humor May 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0519.htm

Humor April 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q2.htm#Humor0419.htm 

Humor March 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0319.htm

Humor February 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0219.htm 

Humor January 2019--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book19q1.htm#Humor0119.htm   

Humor December 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1218.htm  

Humor November 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1118.htm 

Humor October 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1118.htm

Humor October 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q4.htm#Humor1018.htm   

Humor September 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0918.htm 

Humor August 2018 --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0818.htm  

Humor July 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q3.htm#Humor0718.htm 

Humor June 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0618.htm

Humor May 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0518.htm

Humor April 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q2.htm#Humor0418.htm

Humor March 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0318.htm 

Humor February 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0218.htm

Humor January 2018--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book18q1.htm#Humor0118.htm 




Tidbits Archives --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/

Online Distance Education Training and Education --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud  (College, Inc.) --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

The Cult of Statistical Significance: How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm

How Accountics Scientists Should Change: 
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm 

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

 

World Clock --- http://www.peterussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php
Facts about the earth in real time --- http://www.worldometers.info/

Interesting Online Clock and Calendar --- http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf
Time by Time Zones --- http://timeticker.com/
Projected Population Growth (it's out of control) --- http://geography.about.com/od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm
         Also see http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/Populations.html
        
Facts about population growth (video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
Projected U.S. Population Growth --- http://www.carryingcapacity.org/projections75.html
Real time meter of the U.S. cost of the war in Iraq --- http://www.costofwar.com/ 
Enter you zip code to get Census Bureau comparisons --- http://zipskinny.com/
Sure wish there'd be a little good news today.

Free (updated) Basic Accounting Textbook --- search for Hoyle at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination
Free CPA Examination Review Course Courtesy of Joe Hoyle --- http://cpareviewforfree.com/

Rick Lillie's education, learning, and technology blog is at http://iaed.wordpress.com/

Accounting News, Blogs, Listservs, and Social Networking ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm 
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Some of Bob Jensen's Tutorials

Many useful accounting sites (scroll down) --- http://www.iasplus.com/links/links.htm

 

Bob Jensen's Sort-of Blogs --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Some Accounting History Sites

Bob Jensen's Accounting History in a Nutshell and Links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#AccountingHistory
 

Accounting History Libraries at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) --- http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/accountancy/libraries.html
The above libraries include international accounting history.
The above libraries include film and video historical collections.

MAAW Knowledge Portal for Management and Accounting --- http://maaw.info/

Academy of Accounting Historians and the Accounting Historians Journal ---
http://www.accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aah/

Sage Accounting History --- http://ach.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/11/3/269

A nice timeline on the development of U.S. standards and the evolution of thinking about the income statement versus the balance sheet is provided at:
"The Evolution of U.S. GAAP: The Political Forces Behind Professional Standards (1930-1973)," by Stephen A. Zeff, CPA Journal, January 2005 --- http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/105/infocus/p18.htm
Part II covering years 1974-2003 published in February 2005 --- http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/index.htm 

A nice timeline of accounting history --- http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2187711/A-HISTORY-OF-ACCOUNTING

From Texas A&M University
Accounting History Outline --- http://acct.tamu.edu/giroux/history.html

Bob Jensen's timeline of derivative financial instruments and hedge accounting ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm#DerivativesFrauds

History of Fraud in America --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/415wp/AmericanHistoryOfFraud.htm
Also see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud.htm

Bob Jensen's Threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

All my online pictures --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/

 

Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob) http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
190 Sunset Hill Road
Sugar Hill, NH 03586
Phone:  603-823-8482 
Email:  rjensen@trinity.edu